Monday, March 28, 2011

Southern Style Hot Dog Chili

If you were to ask my husband if he could choose what his last meal on earth would be, he would probably answer like this, "An All-beef hot dog, with only ketchup and mustard and an ice cold root beer". Do y'all know my husband pronounces root beer like rut beer? Hilarious, cracks me up every time he says it. Gene, my main squeeze, grew up in northern Indiana, on Lake Michigan right across from Chicago. It's hot dog land up there. In fact, his first job was at a hot dog stand where he worked with his Mom. They were serving up hot dogs and made-on-the-spot root beer. My husband was often in charge of making the root beer. He has fond memories of that first job, especially since he got to work with his Mom (and she made sure her baby got all the hot dogs and root beers his little stomach could stand). My hubby is a bit of a hot dog connoisseur, if there is such a thing. Our son, Alex, has inherited this trait from his Daddy. Those two could probably keep hot dog suppliers in business for years.

Now, hot dogs work a bit differently here in Southwest Virginia. When you order a hot dog, it automatically comes with chili. If you want it without chili, you gotta be specific. They usually refer to a plain hot dog as a weiner dog. But if you just order a hot dog with ketchup and mustard, they are gonna throw chili on there too. And if you go to someone's house for a BBQ, they almost always have a Crock Pot full of chili keeping warm in the kitchen. I enjoy chili on my hot dogs. There are lots of ways to make it. For me, the key is to have a chili that won't overtake the taste of the hot dog (cause I wanna taste that too).

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef (or ground turkey)

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

2 1/2 Tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. worcestershire sauce

3 Tbsp. tomato paste

1 cup beef broth (or water)

3 tbsp. corn meal

1/2 tbsp. kosher salt (to taste)

Vegetable oil

Directions:

Put a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in medium sauce pan. On medium-high heat, saute onion until translucent, then add garlic. Stir for about a minute, then add ground beef. As beef begins to brown, use a potato masher to grind up the beef into small bits.

Once brown, add in the rest of the ingredients (if your beef produced a lot of grease, you may want to strain some of that out first before adding the rest of the ingredients).

These buns, by Heiner's, are what we use when we have chili dogs.

Buns stay up and chili doesn't fall off the side.

Give it all a good stir to combine then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Do a taste test at this point to see if it has enough salt. If you want, you can transfer the chili over to a Crock Pot and put it on the keep warm setting.

Cook's Note: This chili is super-duper wonderful on tater tots and french fries. You gotta try it if you have some leftover chili. Throw some cheddar cheese on top and you gotta whole new meal! And you could definitely try this with leaner meats like ground turkey or chicken.

I'm going to give this chili recipe a try. We love chili dogs here! I've never seen those split top buns before. Thanks for mentioning those. I'll be on the lookout for them. And those Hebrew National dogs are the only ones that are eaten in this house! Thanks for sharing.Jennifer

I along with Becky grew up on the Chicago dog, lots of veggies (might as well be a burger with a whole pickle and slices of tomato on it) and love it to this day. Then I grew up and moved away and discovered chili dogs... AMAZING!!! Oh and chili fries... Ok I'm hungry!

Oh my! This chili recipe looks delicious. In Texas we do chili on our dogs too, but the tater tot thing puts them over the edge. Tater tots with a layer of chili and onions then topped with cheddar and stuck under the broiler for just a minute or two. DIVINE!!!! They are a birthday bbq favorite around here.

We are a chili dog family here, Brandie. Love them so much. Your chili recipe sounds wonderful! I'm with you on the split top hot dog buns. I could never find them in Louisiana. Thanks for sharing your recipe!

In the summertime we have hot dogs so often on the open fire! It seems so long ago, I know at the first almost warm evening, Mr. Rosemary will be asking if we have any dogs. (I'll surprise him with the chili!)

Mmm-mm! This looks really good. When I saw your link on a carnival (I forget which one), I saw that you said something about "tots." I was afraid you were going to say this was a good meal for kids...because I think it looks like a great meal for ME! :)

Hello.You have a great blog..the recipe are all yummy! This chili is such a treat for my kids.Thanks.. I am your newest follower. I hope you could come and visit my blog: www.cookiedropletsetcbymarelie.com

I tried making a dog sauce a few years ago, it did not turn out well at all! But with BBQ season coming up, I want to try again. Your sauce looks good and I like the touch of cornmeal to take up the slack, so it stays on the dog. thanks.

I'm laughing out loud because my first reaction was, "What's wrong with the way your husband says root beer?" Being from the Chicago area, I think he says it perfectly. Then, I saw your package of Hebrew National dogs and I knew you were a hot dog aficionado too. It's always nice when you know that's what's in there is not very, very gross.

Visiting through Tidy Mom's I'm Lovin it Friday. Great recipe, nice and simple. We always use any leftover chili for chili dogs. Gotta have frech chopped onion and cheese on top though. I'll have to give this quick and easy chili a try in between the leftover pots. Thanks.

Brandie - I'm WAY behind on my reading but I saved this one because we're going to have a shredding party at the office and I want to fix chili dogs... I've tried a couple of recipes that I wasn't totally happy with. since I've loved everything else you've made, I'm figuring this'll be a homerun! Happy 4th ;-) Kate

I made this today without the cornmeal and it was great, except, 1 T kosher salt was way too much. I had to do some damage control with a big can of diced tomatoes to tone down the saltiness. Still, a keeper! Thanks for sharing.

Hi Emily! Thank you so much! I did adjust the amount in the recipe. I had originally had (to taste) next to the salt amount. That amount of salt works for us but I realize saltiness is in the mouth of the beholder..lol. Glad you liked it though! Next time try adding the cornmeal. It really adds a little something special to this chili! :)

Can't wait to try this! My sister lives in Southwestern VA too (Dickenson County - and we love our dogs with chili and occasionally slaw as well! Originally from the extreme mountain part of KY and now living in Central KY:)

My husband and I grew up in NW Indiana and I have been looking for years for a hot dog chili recipe like we used to get "back home". Can't wait to try this! So glad I found your site. I think I'm in love!

I also grew up in northern Indiana and dearly loved going to Hank's A&W Root Beer Stand for ice cold A&W root beer and a "Spanish" hot dog (which was his version of chili). My mouth is watering just thinking about those hot dogs. Oh my! I miss our midwestern food, too. Our local WalMart here in western North Carolina sells the split hot dog buns like you use. I am going to have to try this recipe real soon. We don't only fix hot dogs in the summer. In the winter, I do them in the broiler of my oven. Mmmmmmmmm!

I live in NW Indiana about 3 miles from Lake Michigan. Sounds like your M-I-L worked at an A&W drive in. Quite a few responders live in NW Indiana. I've been looking for a recipe for chili dog sauce when I realized how much$$$ that little can cost. I'll have to give your recipe a try. Hello to your husband from the "Region".

Hi There: I was raised in Mi. Battle Creek to be exact, now living in Ca. In Mi. we had a couple little places that sold chile dogs, I believe they were Greek. The hot dogs were to die for. I sure miss them.

I've been wanting a good chili recipe and tried several online that ended up not tasting the best. I was tired of throwing money away on ingredients trying to find a good recipe. I decided to give it another try with this recipe and I'm so glad I did! It's delicious! Thank you.